NEW DELHI:
The peon of a reputed public school and his friend have been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police for allegedly trying to extort money from the secretary of another branch of the same school by posing as henchmen of underworld don Chhota Rajan. The accused were apparently inspired by the Hindi blockbuster "Bunty Aur Babli".

According to the police, the secretary received a call on December 11 in which the caller introduced himself as an aide of Chhota Rajan and demanded Rs. 50 lakhs. He threatened him of dire consequences if he did not pay up within two days.

The case was handed over to the Inter-State Cell of the Crime Branch, led by Inspector Subhash Tandon. The police briefed the secretary to negotiate with the caller and convince him that he would pay the extortion amount in instalments. When the "extortionists" called up again, the secretary expressed his inability to pay the huge amount. The "extortionists" then agreed to accept Rs. 10 lakhs as first instalment on Tuesday.

A police team laid a trap near the house of the secretary on Tuesday. When a person, later identified as Vijay Kumar, driving a taxi appeared on the scene to collect the money, the police apprehended him. Vijay told the police that the taxi had been hired by two persons, who were in Rohini, and that they had asked him to collect a bag from a certain address and give it to them.

The police asked Vijay to take them to the Rohini address. Vijay took them at a spot in Sector-3 Rohini where the two suspects, later identified as Jai Prakash Mishra and Ajay Grover, were waiting. The police arrested them.

During interrogation, the accused allegedly confessed to having made the extortion calls. The mobile phone from which the calls were allegedly made was recovered from their possession.